Newspaper says justices had conflicting roles in libel case

Publisher seeking to overturn verdict

August 09, 2007|By Russell Working, Tribune staff reporter

Asking that three decisions in a multimillion-dollar libel verdict against the Kane County Chronicle be vacated, the publisher argued Wednesday that Illinois Supreme Court justices had conflicting roles as both judges and witnesses in the case brought by Chief Justice Robert Thomas.

Shaw Suburban Media Group -- which owns the Kane County Chronicle -- said the court's "dual role" in assigning the case to a Cook County judge and acting as witnesses for Thomas created irreconcilable conflicts for the high court.

"For judges to know that they're likely to be witnesses and to take action of any sort in a case is not appropriate," Bruce Brown, a Washington attorney who is representing the paper, said in a phone interview.

The court assigned the case to a Cook County judge after judges in Kane County, which is within Thomas' judicial district, recused themselves.

The motion is just the latest wrinkle in an unusual case in which an Illinois chief justice brought a lawsuit within a court system he heads.

Thomas won a $7 million jury verdict -- later reduced to $4 million -- after former Chronicle columnist Bill Page accused him of trading a vote to gain support for a judicial candidate he favored.

The jury agreed with the justice that Page's allegations were false, malicious and potentially damaging to Thomas' career.

Shaw, in turn, filed a federal lawsuit in June against the entire high court, several appellate justices and trial Judge Donald O'Brien, arguing that the case was unconstitutionally stacked against the paper.

Joe Power, a Chicago attorney who represents Thomas, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Wednesday, but in the past he has scoffed at the paper's post-trial lawsuit as an "abuse of process."

"I don't think the losing of a case constitutes a violation of one's civil rights," Power said.

Robyn Ziegler, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, which is representing the justices, declined to comment on the latest motion.

In Wednesday's filing, Shaw argued that three orders by the high court, including a decision to transfer the case from Kane County to a Cook County judge, were inappropriate.

The Supreme Court transferred the case after Kane County judges recused themselves because they work in Thomas' home district. But Shaw insists that this and other high court orders "facilitate[d] the chief justice's prosecution of this case."

Also this week, U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo ordered all sides to enter mediation, saying Tuesday during a hearing that the parties should try to "bring about a global resolution of a dispute that has tied up both the state and now is coming into the federal court."